Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Next up, dig this review of the New Hope compilation. The New Hope was a compilation album dedicated the the Cleveland/Akron hardcore scene that came out in 1983. It was the very first record I was ever on!

If you don't wanna buy the LP, just look it up on iTunes. It's there!

That last post I put up got so much response I almost hate to break up the party. But I decided a while back to try and update this blog at least every three days. I've been traveling and haven't been able to for a couple days. Now I'm back in Brooklyn.

I'm going to do a book review of a book I borrowed from my friend Rod Firestone of the Rubber City Rebels. The book's called A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain. But since I haven't finished reading it yet, I don't think I'm ready for a review. It's pretty good. Maybe next time I'll review it.

I was also thinking of reviewing West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology, which I just got and listened to on the road. Quick review: It's not quite as entertaining as the previous boxed set of Hendrix alternate takes, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. That had the full-length version of If Six Was Nine, which nobody ever thought would get released. The story goes that Hendrix left the master in a taxi and the take heard on the record was edited together from the undamaged portions of a badly stored rough mix. A couple years ago they restored the the damaged bits and now you can hear the whole thing. The rest of that anthology is mainly alternate takes of familiar songs from the days of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

West Coast Seattle Boy includes both pre- and post-Experience recordings. It provides a whole disc of Hendrix's so-called "chitlin' circuit years," when he was a struggling nobody backing up various r&b singers including Little Richard and the Isley Brothers. None of these tracks are especially amazing in themselves. But you get to hear Hendrix developing his soon-to-be signature sound.

The other discs are sometimes revelatory, sometimes cool, but often kind of boring. Jimi taped most of his jam sessions and he is damned good as are the people he played with. But jamming is still jamming. It's fun to do, sometimes fun to see done live, but usually boring to listen to decades later. Unless it's The Who's Live At Leeds album. But maybe that's because Pete Townshend was a songwriter and jamming by The Who in those days was more like instant composition right on stage than just noodling in the key of A.

My new year's resolution was to set myself a schedule and stick to it. I'm already way off schedule today. Ah well....

But I did get a new Suicide Girls piece done and turned in on time. It will run on Monday. It's about depression.

Despite the very many happy hours I spent groking the Grateful Dead's jams when I first encountered them as a young stoner (unlike any other "jam-band" - sometimes miraculous, but often rubbish), I was never a fan of rock jamming- listening to it or doing it. IMHO, the Dead were at there best when they tightened it up - around the time of Europe 72 tour (yes, I saw them). Most rock musicians don't have the something-or-other to make jamming interesting for longer than a couple of minutes. Perhaps it's to do with the form/style itself?

Whatever relationships you have attracted in your life at this moment, are precisely the ones you need in your life at this moment. There is a hidden meaning behind all events, and this hidden meaning is serving your own evolution.

I recently watched the dvd of interviews (waste of time except for Buddy Miles and Billy Cox...(who really cares what Lenny f'in Kravitsz thinks?) and excellent concert footage titled BAND OF GYPSYS after the short-lived Hendrix-led band of the same name. The songs were structured (and ended up in different versions on the BOG albums) but the "jams" mainly consisting of Jimi improvising long solos are incredible. Especially "Machine Gun." F!

I bought the recent Valleys of Neptune but passed on West Coast Seattle Boy, IMO the very best posthumous lp was the first one, still a personal favorite (featuring the Band of Gypsys musicians), CRY OF LOVE.

It's original sin that is missing from Buddhism (e.g. no Adam and Eve - or Adam and Steve).

The second point you need to follow up on in your next book is "The turning of the page" in Meiji (1868). Before 1868, Japanese talked about their secrets. After foreigners arrived, it became very taboo to talk about secrets - a foreigner might overhear the conversation.

I could recommend books but will name just one: Papinot, Edmond. (1910). "Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan."

“If I were founding a university, I would begin with a smoking room; next a dormitory; and then a decent reading room and a library. After that, if I still had more money that I couldn’t use, I would hire a professor and get some text books.” -Stephen Leacock

Enjoyed the Secular Buddhist podcast -- had no idea you had been so involved with dungeons and such.My sense had been this stuff was playacting in skimpy leather costumes but you mention that there is the risk of death...sounded pretty horrifying to me I feel sorry for those whose eroticism needs such conditions--and even risk of death--to be satiatedI am glad there are safe places for them to go.

I liked all the discussion of music and from your blog post looks like you are doing more of thatHave you considered playing with another band or doing more solo stuff ( like D13?)

I'm still mulling over the significance of the abbot of Antaiji misrepresenting the sentiment of Brad's letter, and casting aspersions on Brad's teacher for mentioning physiology. That was quite a long diatribe about masturbation versus family life, as well; very interesting attempt to establish a Catholic norm as a Buddhist standard.

Personally I have respect for the Gautamid as a teacher of zazen, but not as a teacher of social norms. The Cannon makes clear he was a bit of a misogynist, and of course the order split after his death over the question of whether or not an arahant could have a wet dream. Masturbation meant you went to the bottom of the food line; having children as a monk was out of the question.

I think in the West we are obliged to speak to the happiness that the Gautamid associated with meditative states; if zazen is just hard reality training, or is described that way, then the dream that I and many others have of the lotus becoming a more common practice in the West will remain unrealized. Could be that no amount of insightful description will convey how the practice is associated with happiness, and I should read more of the gentleman's talks I suppose, but I'm guessing Brad is closer to such description than the Abbot at the moment.

all the seats at the sunday masses, filled with the mass's massive asses,classes pass as fast as molasses.ceremonial reading glasses.read a little bit of leviticus.all the kids are a little too little for this.all the parents nod in agreement - "i think i can vaguely see what he meant."it's too early in the morning glory to read another allegory story,the father, reads a little bit farther,assuring the assured that they need not bother"when god, in verse 45, said the slaves are okay to buy,he meant that people, all from the starteach have slaves within their hearts.things, that we have sold or boughten, that are forced to pick our moral cottongod calls us to set these free, free our hearts from slavery...and then as god goes on to explain the logistics of buying and selling slaves..."

in the back, i sit and i nod to the beats that are bumpin from my ipodmy god, they're starting to prayand over the music i can hear them say"dear god, dear lord, dear vague muscular man with a beard or a sword.dear good all-seeing being, my way or the highway yahweh.the blue-balled anti-masturbator, the great, all-loving faggot hater,i'd like to thank your holy might for making me both rich and whiteand though this is your day of rest, i come to you with one requestthere's so much pain beyond this steeple, wars and drugs and homeless people.sadness, where there should be joy, hate and rape and soulja boy.a world in darkness needs your light, so i'm sure your schedule's pretty tightbut my dog just had leg surgery if you could fix that first...

debra messing's fingers in a holy place, "hail mary full of grace."

obama, could you pass some hope to the pope i know a couple dude's who wanna elopesee the pope said, "nope" so the bros can't cope.(the bros can grope but the bros can't cope)they've been in love, they've been addictedwho said they shouldn't? benedict did.cause in the holy land of the lord he's the holy landlord and dicks are evicted.cause you can be a benedict if you've been a dick under benedict butyou can't have benedicts because there's only one pope and only one dickwhat? a dick on a pope isjust like a soap on a rope cause it's pointless, unless in prison, throw up your bibles, christ has risen.hallelujah, now it's raining men, because the gender ratio is 1 to 10.winos at the eucharist station, trans-gendered-substantiationjesus wasn't the messiah, get back i'm a heretic and i'm on fireit was oedipus, and those holy nightsthe holy motherfucking christ.i'm a blasphemah post-katrina cruising the marina. on a crusade to cruise aidsand blast FEMAyou're too late, we're fucked we don't need ya.

in the name of the father, son and holy ghosthead, shoulders, knees and toesturn up your nose, strike that pose.HEY MACARENA!

Kodo Sawaki has a much different view onThe 9/11 War (Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iran?)than Brad Warner:

"Once there was a megalomaniac in the Sugamo hospital who called himself "Ashiwara Shōgun." He hung a cardboard medal around his neck and bestowed dignified words to those he met to take with them on their way. Now that the war is over, we can see clearly that what the military did wasn’t at all different. And now they want to reintroduce medals yet again... After winning the Russo-Japanese war, we thought we’d won colonies. But what really came of it? After losing the Second World War, we realized that we had only earned the hatred of the Russians... Everyone is talking about loyalty to the fatherland. The question is simply where this loyalty will take us. I too was completely convinced when I went to war against the Russians, but after our defeat, I realized that we had done something that we shouldn’t have. In any case, it’s better not to make war in the first place."

m- again with the elegant anecdote! this one can't touch it, but is amusing. I once had a business with the name 'void' in it, although it was not incorporated and I paid taxes under my name. nonetheless, my best client, a large corporation, would persist in sending checks made out to VOID, which miraculously seemed to pass the censors unnoticed.

"Barry Graham's latest move is he got a lawyer to write a letter to the place of employment of the Graham Scam blogger (Kevin) drawing attention to the blogging about Barry and the Sitting Frog Zen Center. Seems my friend could have posted a few things when he might have been on company time and Barry or someone figured that out and came at him from that angle. It is basically a harassment to get the blogger fired as the indictments stand on their on merit. So while there is a review of the situation the website has been pulled. Barry will not contest the allegations in an honest confrontation but it seems he will sneak up and attackfrom the rear."

Seems a shame that the all that hard work compiling evidence against the evil Graham will be flushed down the toilet.

I liked Stupid a lot. - "What bases for disputation could there be among the wise?". - But then the contemporary modern advanced and enlightened would see nothing but unvarying opinions and proof of stubbornness.

- I mean why do all those who have eyes have to insist on the same opinions? Blindness offers such a great variety. And flexibility too, - you can change your opinion like a mole in the absolute freedom of its damp hole. Eyes are a hindrance to redemption.

"It is a claim made before by, among others, Lenny Kravitz and the Swedish garage band the Hellacopters. But today, after years of struggle, came evidence to support the fearsome claim: rock'n'roll is dead.

Last year saw the number of rock songs in the singles chart fall to its lowest level in half a century, with only three tracks appearing in the top 100 best-selling hits in the UK.

The percentage of rock songs plummeted from a sickly 13% in 2009 to a terminal 3% – far behind hip-hop/R'n'B at 47%, pop at 40% and dance 10%, according to figures from MusicWeek."

According to a CBS poll, "Overall, 57 percent of American respondents said the harsh political tone had nothing to do with the Arizona shooting, compared to 32 percent who felt it did." Just under half of Democratic respondents said there was no connection between the two, while nearly 70% of Republican respondents thought the two are unrelated.

I think this comment must be intended for someone else's blog. I do not delete any comments except for the occasional obvious spam. And I haven't even done that for almost a year. The comments you see deleted are deleted by the commenters themselves.

"Barry Graham's latest move is he got a lawyer to write a letter to the place of employment of the Graham Scam blogger (Kevin) drawing attention to the blogging about Barry and the Sitting Frog Zen Center. Seems my friend could have posted a few things when he might have been on company time and Barry or someone figured that out and came at him from that angle. It is basically a harassment to get the blogger fired as the indictments stand on their on merit. So while there is a review of the situation the website has been pulled. Barry will not contest the allegations in an honest confrontation but it seems he will sneak up and attackfrom the rear."

Seems a shame that the all that hard work compiling evidence against the evil Graham will be flushed down the toilet.

<<I think this comment must be intended for someone else's blog. I do not delete any comments except for the occasional obvious spam. And I haven't even done that for almost a year. The comments you see deleted are deleted by the commenters themselves.

I did not know. I thought you personally deleted those missing comments. Anyway, I am sorry. I am very glady that there is no censorship here.